It's a long road ahead for Sean Newcomb

MIDDLEBORO — Last Thursday, Sean Newcomb became Middleboro's second Major League Baseball draft selection in two years, and the fourth in the last 10 years.

Jon Haglof

MIDDLEBORO — Last Thursday, Sean Newcomb became Middleboro's second Major League Baseball draft selection in two years, and the fourth in the last 10 years.

Newcomb, who just finished up his junior year at the University of Hartford and graduated from Middleboro High School in 2011, was the 15th pick overall in the 2014 MLB draft and is now in contract negotiations with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He looks to be on track to get started on his pro career soon, though the option to return to the University of Hartford for his senior year remains on the table.

Of course, if Newcomb needs some advice or insight on the subject of what's to come, he needn't look far.

In 2013, Middleboro resident Tyler Horan, a graduate of BC High and Virginia Tech, was selected in the eighth round by the San Francisco Giants. Today, he's playing for the Augusta GreenJackets of the Class A South Atlantic League; according to MiLB.com, he's batting a solid .263 with five home runs and 25 RBIs.

And a couple of other local players, both pitchers, flirted with those Major League dreams, both becoming late-round selections of the Detroit Tigers: Tom Thornton, a 2002 graduate of Middleboro High School who went on to pitch at the University of Notre Dame, and Kevin Brower, who graduated from Coyle-Cassidy in 2000 and went on to play collegiate ball at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Both Thornton and Brower played some minor league ball, but they never got close to cracking the big time. As Horan has surely learned by now, and Thornton and Brower would likely tell you, it's a long way up.

But Newcomb's rise is uniquely impressive among the four.

He was something of a late-bloomer in high school, and really didn't find his groove on the pitcher's mound until his senior year. He quickly found a spot in the rotation in his freshman season at U Hartford, he added a couple of new pitches and turned it up a notch as a sophomore, and this past spring, as a junior, he surged ahead to become first-round draft prospect.

By April he was making national headlines and MLB scouts were lining up to have a look. Early in the season, he had an NCAA Division 1-leading ERA of 0.00. He finished the season with an 8-2 record with a 1.25 ERA and 106 strikeouts.

As predicted, he was a bona fide first-round pick, confirmed by the Angels last Thursday night.

Now, we wait. And as past experience would dictate, we should throw all possible support his way, and above all, we should be patient, hopeful and die-hard, any-kind-of-weather Sean Newcomb fans.

One day, maybe soon, who knows, Newcomb may make it out of the minor leagues, get to the top of the pile and suit up for a Major League game. And if, or when, he does I will surely tell anyone willing to listen my story about the night — I think — Sean Newcomb went from just another high school kid with a dominant fastball to something more — it's hard to say just what more when it's a high school kid, but I'm fairly sure I remember that first flash of greatness.

In the spring of 2011, behind a potent one-two pitching punch of Newcomb and number two ace Nick Radcliffe, and a great supporting cast, the MHS baseball team rolled to a 17-3 regular-season record and took the top seed in the MIAA Division 3 South Sectional Tournament.

Then, in his final start for the Sachems, in the D3 South semifinal game against fourth-seeded Norwell at Rockland Stadium, Newcomb pitched his best game as a high schooler.

Norwell came in as the consensus favorite, as I recall, despite being the lower seed, and based on the idea that the Clippers, not the Sachems, had the best pitcher in Division 3.

Newcomb pitched the full seven innings, and when the game lingered into extra innings, deadlocked at 0-0, it seemed inevitable that Newcomb would get the hook. But MHS head coach Bill Lawrence knew better, and Newcomb went two more innings without giving up a hit.

I remember standing alongside the players, coach Lawrence, assistant coach Gary Bagdasarian and former MHS baseball coach and current MHS Athletic Director Mike Perry, and all agreed Newcomb was on fire and in the midst of something special.

He finished his work in the top of the ninth and went back to the dugout with a 17 strikeouts against just two hits. And it's more than likely he would've gone back to the mound in the 10th, if needed. But the game ended there, as teammate Chris Benson came up with the walk-off hit in the bottom half of the ninth, driving in Brian Wiksten for the 1-0 win. (Middleboro lost to Apponequet, 1-0, in the D3 South championship game.)